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Call it what you will—clerical error, erratum, misprint or typing mistake—there it was. A typo of my own doing. An out of place word left over from a previous editing effort, smack dab in the middle of a testimonial I emailed a business owner for use in his direct mail piece. The piece had been mailed to scores of current and prospective clients, including me.
My husband, a thoughtfully slow reader, found the typo right away. Why hadn’t I asked him to read my copy before sending it on? I was mortified. I hoped everyone else who received the piece was a fast reader.
My lame excuse? I was in a hurry to get it to the business owner by the time I promised.
While this happened months ago, I still cringe when I think of that typo. When I recently heard about two guys who have written a book, The Great Typo Hunt, about their nationwide effort to eradicate typos, I cringed again. I took little comfort in hearing, “Typos can trip up anyone who works with words at one time or another.”
My experience reminded me of editing suggestions I heard years ago and now abide by almost fanatically. I’m fairly confident that I’ll save myself from being mortified in the future. Here are the suggestions:
• Don’t edit as you go. Instead, wait until your entire writing is complete.
• Print what you’ve written.
• With pen in hand, read it aloud to make sure your writing flows and makes sense. Read it again, looking for misspellings, improper punctuation and grammar, wrong word choices and other errors. Write the changes on the printout.
• Fix your document on-line, then print it again.
• Take a break for at least 20 minutes or, better yet, overnight before reading it again.
• Then read backwards, sentence by sentence. Start with the last sentence, read the second to last and so on until you get to the beginning. This exercise forces you to focus on the technical aspects of your writing rather than getting caught up with content.
• Use the spell-check feature on your document once you’re certain all other typos have been eliminated. Make sure any hyperlinks you’ve included link to working websites.
• For a surefire finish to your editing, ask a well-read friend or family member to take one last critical look at what you’ve written.
By the way, after I write business related email, I read aloud and edit even my shortest messages before pressing Send. That is, when I’m not in a big hurry.
Copyright © 2010 Nikki Evans, Spotlight Writing
nikki@spotlight-writing.com
www.spotlight-writing.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkispotlightwriting